Dec 21, 2024
Douglas Leedy - A Very Merry Electric Christmas To You!
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Douglas Leedy - A Very Merry Electric Christmas To You!
Douglas Leedy – A Very Merry Electric Christmas To You! LP
Douglas Leedy - Joy To The World
have a bleepy, bloopy christmas
(my kids are going to grow up with this playing at christmas)
Douglas Leedy: "Silent Night"
From the album A Very Merry Electric Chrismas to You! (1971)
Coming at the tail end of the post-Switched-On Bach "Moogsploitation" craze of the late 1960s, Douglas Leedy's A Very Merry Electric Christmas to You! is a lovely and musically sensitive synthesis (pun intended) of timeless holiday melodies and the cutting-edge electronic music technology of its time.
Leedy is an American composer, conductor, and musicologist whose slim discography belies his many years of activity in a variety of genres. In the late 1960s he taught at UCLA, where he also established an electronic music studio. Later he abandoned 12-tone equal temperament and pursued a musical style inspired by modal scales, minimalist repetitive patterns, and Carnatic Indian musical traditions. Since 2003, he has published music under the name Bhisma Xenotechnites.
A Very Merry Electric Christmas to You! features mostly "straight" arrangements of Christmas tunes, with some tracks (such as "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "The First Noel") showing off Leedy's not inconsiderable classical chops in florid variations on melodic themes. In his version of "Silent Night," a gently modulated electronic drone provides a perfectly soporific accompaniment to the lilting melody.
The album was produced at the UCLA electronic music studio and features both Moog and Buchla synthesizers, as well as a mysterious touch-controlled instrument called the "Ognob Generator," a tiny custom-build device created by Leedy with the assistance of W. R. Biglow, Jr.
Leedy's two other electronic albums, The Electric Zodiac (1969) and Entropical Paradise (1971) show his more experimental side. Entropical Paradise, for example, is a two-hour work comprising six "sonic environments" created by free-running generative synthesizer patches.
Not surprisingly, A Very Merry Electric Christmas to You! was not the only Moog Christmas venture of the period. The Moog Machine's Christmas Becomes Electric, a decidedly tame introduction to the synthesizer, actually predated Leedy's record by two years.
Douglas Leedy. Entropical Paradise clip.
Douglas Leedy.
@Lackadaze Always Listening.
Christmas Spirit. Yep, it's quite infecting. At one time I didn't completely embrace the holiday but in the last 5 years I've evolved into a regular a minion of Santa's army.
Of particular interest to us in these celebratory times is breaking out the batch of Christmas LPs we've accumulated over the years and dropping the needle on some yuletide cheer. That coupled with a nice Bourbon cider really does the trick.
Without question there are some classic records that simply must be devoured. Phil Spector's incredible "A Christmas Gift to You", The Ventures "Christmas Album", Vince Guaraldi's "Charlie Brown Christmas" and one of my favorites The Temptations "Christmas Card". However there's also the lesser heard, more bizarre Christmas sounds that are lurking in dollar bins throughout the globe.
Angela and I found this record last year during our yearly jaunt to Rochester to visit Bop Shop Records fantastic Christmas selection. The unfortunate thing is we always get there after Christmas so we usually buy a bunch but don't actually delve into them until the following year.
Such is the case with Douglas Leedy's "A Very Merry Electric Christmas To You" which is basically his take on Christmas standards using Moog and Buchla synthesizers. Wow, what a listen. If you're tired of hearing the same old standards trudged through year in/year check this baby out. Some of it may even give you the creeps too. Sounds like it should've been in "Silent Night, Deadly Night" in fact. Much of it revolves around a somewhat creepy/ethereal intro which evolves into the familiar melody. The arrangements are the interesting part. Hearing the counter melodies he conjured up and the criss-crossing arpeggios definitely bring some other worldliness to world of Christmas Carols. This may go without saying but it's entirely instrumental so there's not even a vocal treatment to break up the synth madness. Just a wonderful polyphonic winter wonderland.
I am seriously wondering how on earth Capitol Records thought this would be a commercial breakthrough. (and who the hell is Douglas Leedy anyway!?) It doesn't exactly bestow a festive feeling to the casual listener but for the more adventurous and seasoned Christmas music vet, it'll surely spike your nog.
It's not too easy to find the LP (cheaply anyway) but I believe it's actually available digitally. (Itunes, Emusic, etc)
Frightening cover too. Check out "Good King Wenceslas" by Douglas Leedy for the LP, "A Very Merry Electric Christmas To You".
